Glossary of Terms

This is a phase within the contract life cycle. Activities include; the Competitive Solicitation procurement process; negotiating (where permissible) with successful bidders; and contract execution.

An account in the general ledger in which the aggregate of all debit and credit postings to a number of related accounts (called the subsidiary accounts) are recorded. For example, the Accounts Receivable account is a control account supported by the aggregate of the individual customer subsidiary accounts.

(A17) - A document used by agencies to order, encumber, liquidate, and authorize payment for local purchases. This form is used when an agency has general or specific authority to make the purchase or when the item being purchased falls within the statewide contracts

"Microbusiness" means any business entity, including a sole proprietorship, corporation, partnership, or other legal entity, that: (a) Is owned and operated independently from all other businesses; and (b) has a gross revenue of less than one million dollars annually as reported on its federal tax return or on its return filed with the department of revenue.

A 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation that receives state or federal public funds, organized for charitable purposes.

An estimate of the total time that an asset is usable and in service.

Accounts that are subject to the appropriation and/or allotment process.

Accounts set up by law to receive revenue from a specific source and to be spent for a specific purpose.

A fund established to account for all financial resources and transactions except those required by law to be accounted for in specific dedicated accounts.

Certification of business enterprises. The office shall be the sole authority to perform certification of minority business enterprises, socially and economically disadvantaged business enterprises, and women's business enterprises throughout the state of Washington. Certification by the state office will allow these firms to participate in programs for these enterprises administered by the state of Washington, any city, town, county, special purpose district, public corporation created by the state, municipal corporation, or quasimunicipal corporation within the state of Washington. This statewide certification process will prevent duplication of effort, achieve efficiency, and permit local jurisdictions to further develop, implement, and/or enhance comprehensive systems of monitoring and compliance for contracts issued by their agencies.

The portion of expenditure authority not expected to be used because of circumstances such as the Governor’s across-the-board allotment reductions, technical corrections, or proviso compliance.

A fiscal and accounting entity with a self-balancing set of general ledger codes in which cash and other financial resources, together with all related liabilities and residual equities or balances, and changes therein, are recorded and segregated for the purpose of carrying on specific activities or attaining certain objectives in accordance with special regulations, restrictions, or limitations. For reporting purposes, the state identifies major accounts, and administratively combines all remaining accounts into roll-up funds. Most accounts are set up in state law to isolate specific activities.

Cash receipts are any moneys (e.g., checks, cash, warrants, credit or debit card amounts, or EFTs) received by the state during a period regardless of when the moneys are earned.

An application used to track requests for director review of job classification assignment to a position.

Any budget development approach that focuses on incremental changes to a previous spending level or other defined expenditure base.

Granular view of payroll earnings and deductions.

The City of Seattle recognizes firms who self certify as minority owned or women owned.

Refers to an agency’s capacity (availability of time and resources) and capability to support and adopt the upcoming transformation. People, process, and technology are the core elements used to assess and measure agency readiness over time. Agency Readiness is a component of OCM.

This is the State of Washington including all agencies, higher education and other entities. The Company Code has one tax ID number.

A set of defined rules that enable different applications to communicate with each other. It acts as an intermediary of the layer that processes data transfers between systems. 

A service or grant that, under state or federal law, must be provided to all eligible applicants.

Lean is a systematic approach to improving value to customers by eliminating waste. The focus is on the customer and the work steps (or "value stream") that create products or services for customers. Lean thinking, tools, and techniques offer an opportunity to streamline business processes to save time, effort and money that can be better used on what customers value most.

Supplier pricing hosted on DES website—master contract portal pages for ordering, in absence of a full catalog.

A subprocess refers to a specific activity or action within a software that falls under the broader umbrella of a process. For instance, procurement is a process, and purchase-to-pay is a subprocess.

An offer to do construction work for payment, the acceptance of which constitutes a contract between the contractor who made the bid (the bidder) and the agency or institution who accepted it exclusive of adjustments for additive alternates. Also know as a proposal or a tender; often called a prime bid when made by a construction company that hopes to become the prime contractor, or a sub-bid when made by a company that hopes to become a subcontractor.

A contract for specific goods or services that is solicited and established by the agency in accordance with procurement laws and rules on behalf of and for use by a specific agency or group of agencies as needed from time to time, not available for general use and may only be used as specified by the agency.

A statement of the estimated fiscal impact of proposed legislation. This cost estimate is usually developed by the state agencies affected by the bill, and then approved and communicated to the Legislature by the Office of Financial Management.

"Mini business" means any business entity, including a sole proprietorship, corporation, partnership, or other legal entity, that: (a) Is owned and operated independently from all other businesses; and (b) has a gross revenue of less than three million dollars, but one million dollars or more annually as reported on its federal tax return or on its return filed with the department of revenue.

Supplier catalogs hosted directly on supplier websites with a link hosted on DES—master contract portal pages.

A systematic, orderly approach to defining a facility's required function, verifying the need for the function, and creating alternatives for providing the function at minimum life-cycle cost. Value is the lowest life-cycle cost to achieve the required function. VE is a problem-solving system that emphasizes the reduction of cost while maintaining the required quality and performance of the facility. It is a technique that is applied in addition to the regular design process. It is required on all major projects.